Why Baptism? Matthew Chapter 3

Baptism in all of scripture is always “believer’s baptism”. The person being baptized has already made a decision to believe in Jesus.

In other words,

If you were baptized as a baby, your parents made a commitment to raise you to hear about and love Jesus, good! But believer’s baptism is for people old enough to have made a personal decision to follow Christ themselves. You couldn’t do that as a baby. If you were baptized as a baby, and have since made a personal decision to follow Christ, then it’s time to be baptized – as a believer.

If you were baptized when you were a child or a teenager, but you know now that you actually didn’t have a heart-faith in Jesus at that time, then you haven’t yet participated in “believers’ baptism”.

Baby or childhood baptism is not the same as believer’s baptism. Don’t let anyone tell you not to be baptized as a believer because you’ve already been baptized as a baby, or because you were baptized (though not a believer) as a child or teen. It’s not the same. You didn’t “raise your flag”. You couldn’t. If you have come to faith in Christ since then, “raise your flag” now.